Software tools to be used by employees of large organizations rarely satisfy the end-user. They might be complex, difficult to use, not feasible in the actual work context or even worse adding to the workload of the users. This is however not that surprising, since designing for such complex organizational contexts can be challenging. Typically, such projects involve a large number of stakeholders and a diverse group of users, all with their own roles, backgrounds, wishes, needs and preferences. For large enterprises is is a challenge to create internal tools that fulfill their supporting role for the employees and at the same time take away few as possible resources from the core business. This paper reports on a research under the umbrella of the larger areas of CSCW and HCI. The project aimed at getting more insights into using a user-centered approach to the design and development of internal-tools within a large multinational corporation. Field observations from within the department were combined with design explorations in which new tools were prototyped. A model for thinking about the work setting is presented and recommendations for interaction designers aiming at applying a user-centered approach to design of internal tools are given.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, students has been forced to spend more time studying alone at home, which in some cases has led to increased stress and anxiety. This thesis explores qualities in Slow, Calm and Persuasive technology, together with temporal concepts in theory and qualities derived from ideation, with the aim to explore which qualities should be considered while designing for supporting self-reflection on time spent while studying. The process in this thesis is explorative, moving from ideation, to digital and physical prototypes, with the authors reflections and experiences driving the process forward and experience sessions with participants that were used to ground the experience through their reflections and new perspectives. Through evaluating the reflections and experiences with tools and design principles, the work ends up with the four qualities flow, tension, unfolding and balance as suggestions to work with in future research on designing for supporting self-reflection on time spent while studying.

From the creation of traditional board-games to their translation into digital interfaces, a new era seems to be starting, where the need for physical sensory interactions battles the benefits brought on by technology. This is where hybrids are born as a middle ground that blends the benefits of these two forms of play. And while new hybrid game designs should cater these benefits equally, it seems that these post digital board-games, have still been focused in proposing new technologies, rather than new interactions. A shift in focus is now necessary, placing hybrids as a bridge between physical and digital domains, towards innovative interactions in gameplaying experiences. As games are set in a context that blends imaginary narratives with real contexts and players, exploring new forms of interaction is only made possible by looking beyond what games are, and into the experiences they provide. In that sense, this design process will explore deduction game components, such as the communication of clues that lead players to discover the solution and win the game. The final concept, Lines of Thoughts, contributes to the discussion by looking at materiality in interactions as something not only seen literally defined in physical form, but also metaphorical. Elements that would otherwise be intangible, such as thoughts, can be made tangible through technologically enhanced lines that can be created, seen, touched, heard, and, ultimately, interacted with.

Forskning och utveckling har hittills mestadels fokuserats på den rent tekniska utvecklingen av ’speech recognition’ för användningen av produkter med ’Voice user interface’ (VUI). Men det krävs mer för att skapa en bra upplevelse och frekvent användande av VUI. Detta examensarbete undersöker hur upplevelsen och värdet av VUI kan förbättrats för användaren.Genom intervjuer, observationer och frågeformulär riktade mot användare av VUI-produkter innehållande Google Assistant, Alexa eller Siri, identifierades de två största problemområdena – att VUI inte anpassar volymen på sina svar efter omgivningens ljudnivå, samt bristen på kunskap om vad VUI kan användas till i de olika produkterna.Resultatet från användartester av prototyperna visar att en nuvarande teknisk begränsning som volymanpassning kan genom vidareutveckling av tekniken öka användarvänligheten avsevärt. Testerna visar även att användarupplevelsen ökar om användaren blir medveten om vad som faktiskt kan göras med VUI, vilket leder till ytterligare förenklingar i vardagen.

The present study explores the use of interactions for a communicative purpose, when it comes to communicate banking brand values through a website. By establishing important banking values, trust, sincerity and transparency this study investigates how interaction can be used to communicate those values, through the theory of interaction attributes. Using interaction attributes to communicate emotions as well as brand values has been previously investigated. However, not in the setting of banking. Through designing and exploring interactions this study established some important qualities to consider when designing for banking, with the goal of communicating trust, sincerity and transparency. Attributes consistency, expectedness and apparent are favourable, whilst pliability is found to have a negative effect. In addition to these attributes established by previous work, the findings suggest the importance of a new quality, to design interactions that animate slowly over time, as a way to guide the user through the interaction.

Sharing information at a workplace is important to keep the employees inthe loop. At workplaces where employees don’t have common work hoursconventional methods for sharing information are insufficient, making itchallenging to stay in the loop. Through participation and observation thisstudy has investigated how information is shared at Systembolaget in VästraHamnen in Malmö. Based on the findings, a design proposal is suggested and tested with the employees at the store.

This paper explores the field of museum interactions with a specific focus on the introduction of smell as a means to communicate the objects on display and create more memorable museum visits. Through literature, research, focus groups, and a substantial ideation phase I have found problems and design openings in the exhibition room. These, I have addressed by creating and testing a set of three olfactory display prototypes in the exhibition, all with a scent fitting not only the objects but also the exhibition room as a whole. The introduction of these interactive olfactory displays has resulted in a change in how the exhibition was perceived and what the visitors took with them from the experience. This is an exploration into a new and unknown field, contributing to the field of museums as well as the general field of smell interaction in space. It is also an exploration into how museum visits can be made more memorable by using the incredible ability of smells to spark associations and memories.

This thesis explores the field of mediated presence in a distant relationship, with a specific focus on the introduction of “receptiveness” as the biggest factor, when designing to enhance this mediated experience. I have approached this field in a user centered manner since it is fairly unexplored thus far. Through related work, cultural probe, interviews and discussions with the target group I have explored design opportunities. These design opportunities are contributing to the field. This by revealing how the target group evaluate presence, to what extent they do so and the different needs the relationship have when experiencing presence. The introduction of “receptiveness” as the main factor to how we experience presence lead to prototyping and user testing in regard of manipulation of certain times and spaces. Resulting in different explorations to how mediated presence will be experienced as enhanced.

This thesis presents a collection of experimental designs that approach the problem of growing electricity consumption in homes. From the perspective of design, the intention has been to critically explore the design space of energy awareness artefacts to reinstate awareness of energy use in everyday practice. The design experiments were used as vehicles for thinking about the relationship between physical form, interaction, and social practice. The rationale behind the concepts was based on a small-scale ethnography, situated interviews, and design experience. Moreover, the thesis compares designer intention and actual user experiences of a prototype that was installed in nine homes in a residential area in Stockholm for three months. This was done in order to elicit tacit knowledge about how the concept was used in real-world domestic settings, to challenge everyday routines, and to enable both users and designers to critically reflect on artefacts and practices. From a design perspective, contributions include design approaches to communicating energy use: visualizations for showing relationships between behaviour and electricity consumption, shapes and forms to direct action, means for turning restrictions caused by energy conservation into central parts of the product experience, and ways to promote sustainable behaviour with positive driving forces based on user lifestyles. The general results indicate that inclusion is of great importance when designing energy awareness artefacts; all members of the household should be able to access, interact with, and reflect on their energy use. Therefore, design-related aspects such as placement and visibility, as well as how the artefact might affect the social interactions in the home,  become central. Additionally, the thesis argues that these types of artefacts can potentially create awareness accompanied by negative results such as stress. A challenge for the designer is to create artefacts that communicate and direct energy use in ways that are attractive and can be accepted by all household members as a possible way of life. / <p>In the electronic version of the thesis the references in some of the chapters has been corrected.</p>

This project investigates how interaction design can support handcrafting and foster well-being. The design process has been user-centered, focusing on people who handcraft during their leisure. Along the process, the focus was narrowed down to the practices of artistic handcrafting such as painting and sketching. The design project resulted in a concept with an associated digital prototype that supports users to handcraft personal artistic work by inspiring them to realize one's ideas or visions. The final concept supports a free and exploratory handcrafting process, proven by the design process to be important for people engaged in artistic handcrafting. This thesis further discusses the design process, the reasoning behind the prototype role, and its features. The outcome contributes knowledge to the field of Interaction Design regarding essential aspects of design that support the practice of handcrafting and fosters well-being.